Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced that the province has administered more than 500,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to date, the most among all Canadian provinces.
Phase One of the vaccine rollout focused on high-risk populations, including residents of long-term care homes, high-risk retirement homes and First Nations elder care homes.
The first phase was recently expanded to include adults aged 80 and older, and the province is working with public health units to build and expand capacity to immunize Phase Two populations by increasing delivery networks and preparing a booking solution and customer service supports for mass vaccination clinic registrations.
"I want to assure the people of this great province that we are ready to get vaccines into as many arms as possible, we simply need the supply," said Ford.
"Our Vaccine Task Force, led by General Hillier, is executing our vaccine distribution plan with military precision and we have now administered over a half a million doses. This is great progress, but we would all like to be moving faster. I urge our federal government partners to do whatever it takes to get us more vaccines so we can better protect people and eventually defeat this deadly virus."
The unexpected reductions in supply and delayed shipments in early February forced Ontario to quickly adjust its vaccination plan to accelerate its focus on vaccinating the province's highest risk resident populations.
Last week, Ontario reached its target to offer a first dose of the vaccine to residents of all long-term care homes across the province and has now administered over 167,000 doses to long-term care and retirement home residents.
The province continues to expand capacity and ramp up efforts for Phase Two of its vaccination rollout, expected to begin in April 2021. Public health units have developed plans to operate mass immunization clinics as soon as enough supply becomes available, as well as continuing to offer mobile clinics to vaccinate our most vulnerable.
Ontario is developing an online booking system to support the next phase of vaccination roll-out. A customer service desk will be made available to those who are unable to book an appointment through the online tool. Details will be provided over the coming weeks.